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<title>Home (is where the heart is) by TheMalhamBird</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23429923">Home (is where the heart is)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMalhamBird/pseuds/TheMalhamBird'>TheMalhamBird</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MalhamBird's Cabinet of Curiosities (fic of 500 words or less) [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Richard II - Shakespeare</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:41:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23429923</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMalhamBird/pseuds/TheMalhamBird</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ambassador to France wants Richard's Queen to come home. They have a difference of opinion as to where "home" is</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MalhamBird's Cabinet of Curiosities (fic of 500 words or less) [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685425</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Home (is where the heart is)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This fic uses Shakespeare's version of Richard's 1399 Queen, which is to say an adult version of Isabelle de Valois- although it imagines her remaining in England far beyond being told to "get thee to France" by the Earl of Northumberland, just as her historical counterpart was forced to remain until Henry could be made to send her back to her parents. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>I am starting to transfer the fics and snippets from my Tumblr account across to Ao3 so that they’re findable. The fic below is one of them and may have been written at any point between 01/04/2020 and sometime during 2018…</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Come home.”<br/>Come Home. <br/>Her father’s Ambassadors never have anything else to say, except come home, and every time she hears it Isabel wants to scream, and scream, and not stop screaming. Home. She has no home. Home was Bushy helping her practice her English, and Bagot teaching her to play the lute badly- at least that was always Green’s opinion- Home was those three teasing each other, and Green playing the lute beautifully but declaring himself too impatient to teach her himself, home was Edward of York telling her how to tell what sort of mood the King was in, and trying his best to get her to get over her dislike of horses. <br/>Home was the King, Richard, her husband, who painted her nails and found books he thought she’d like and always set time aside for her, at least an hour every day where it was just them, talking, and…<br/>And all that’s gone. Richard is in prison. Bushy and Green are dead. Bagot betrayed them all, or so Isabel hears. “Come home,” the French ambassador says, every monthly check to make sure she’s still breathing, and she wants to, god she wants to- except that he means France, and she thinks-I could see Edward, at least. Poor Edward, who looked at Richard like he was the sun and moon and stars all in one. <br/>She’s staying. Home’s been burned to the ground, but she’ll stand her ground in the ashes anyway. She tells the Ambassador that if her father wants her back he can invade England and fetch her and her husband both, no, she will not consent to her marriage being dissolved, if they try she’ll run away to Rome and appeal to the Pope (she doesn’t quite know how she’d get to Rome, but the Bishop of Carlisle comes to see her and he’d probably agree to take her, if she asked. Or- help her write to the Vatican, at least, or something). She thinks it probably annoys Henry that he has to pay to maintain her household, so that’s another reason for staying.<br/>Anyway, it’s only been five months. There might be a rebellion planned, or something- and in the meantime…<br/>The Ambassador  urges her to come home.<br/>She smiles as though her heart’s not breaking and says, “Your Excellency. I am home.”</p>
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